Heather Hansen: ‘Gordon Hasn’t Hit Rock Bottom’

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - SEPTEMBER 22: Josh Gordon #12 of the Cleveland Browns carries the football during the first quarter of the game on September 22, 2013 at Mall of America Field at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)

Josh Gordon (Credit: Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)

Things have gone from bad to worse for Josh Gordon, who was arrested this past weekend in Raleigh, N.C., for a DWI and speeding. The Cleveland Browns wideout was already facing a potential one-year suspension before this incident.

“I think he blew a 0.9, and (the legal limit is) 0.8 there,” Philadelphia-based O’Brien & Ryan attorney Heather Hansen said on Ferrall on the Bench. “So he was just over the edge, but there’s some question about (whether) other substances (were) involved. it may have been more than just alcohol.”

Unfortunately, the authorities are not really answering that question – mainly, Hansen said, because they fear a potential defamation lawsuit down the road.

But what do we make of Gordon, who last year had 87 catches for 1,646 yards and nine touchdowns? There are those who say he’s hit rock bottom. Cris Carter, in fact, thinks the Browns should release Gordon in an attempt to open his eyes and grab his attention. That might seem harsh, but Carter is speaking from experience. He battled cocaine and alcohol addiction as a player, was cut by Philadelphia, got sober and had a Hall of Fame career with Minnesota.

Scott Ferrall, however, doesn’t know if that’s the ideal course of action. Gordon, 23, is too talented to never play in the NFL again, so why not just keep him, get him some help and hope for the best?

“He’s definitely not hit rock bottom,” Hansen said. “He’s got a long way to go, I think, for that. But he definitely needs to shape up a little bit. He needs to stop hanging around with some of the people he’s hanging around with.”

In other legal news, disgraced Clippers owner Donald Sterling is expected to testify Tuesday, as his wife, Shelly, tries to sell the team to Steve Ballmer for $2 billion. Sterling and his lawyers lost a bid to move the case from probate court to federal court.

“It doesn’t really belong in federal court,” Hansen said. “It really was a delay tactic to keep it out of the probate court. They have the vote July 15. These owners vote whether or not to approve the sale, so Mrs. Sterling wants to get this through as quickly as possible, get it through probate court. He’s a little upset over the fact that she’s trying to do this. As soon as it gets through probate court, she can go ahead and sell it. So he was trying to do anything he could to delay it. He tried to claim that this was a violation of his HIPAA rights because his medical records were put out there in public and the federal judge said, ‘You know what? That’s really not our place to be deciding this thing. Keep it in probate court and you can go ahead and decide it.”

Is Sterling crazy?

“Listen, he’s an older guy, he’s been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and he’s been diagnosed with dementia,” Hansen said of the 80-year-old. “V (Stiviano) really took advantage of his dementia. He made his own bed, and now he’s definitely lying in it. But she’s not faultless either.”